getting you ready for the super storm. sandy creeps up the coast, threatening to bring us 4e6heav

rain and winds. amtrak is already cancelling some service tonight as the storm getscloser. grocery shelves are empty. good evening, i'm chris gordon. we have team coverage of sandy tonight from throughout the d.c. metro area to rehoboth beach. we begin with storm team four doug kammerer with the latest on sandy's track. >> we have the latest track out there chris, that track brings it very close to our region and once again, the forecast not real letter changing all that much. the forecasts have been very good over the past couple days on when this storm is going to be going. you can see where it is right now, just off the coast of georgia here, here's savannah georgia, it's due east of savannah georgia. it's still a hurricane. the national hurricane center thought this would be a tropical storm, it's still a hurricane, still holding on, we're seeing

strong wind as long the north carolina coast line. here's the winds, 75 mes an hour. moving to the northeast at 14 miles an hour. it continues to strengthen. the track taking it back out and then right back into shore. very close to our area. during the morning on tuesday. that's when i expect this to be the worst coming up late monday and into tuesday. let's talk about that wind. that's going to be the biggest factor here, as we look through the day tomorrow. i don't expect to see too much in the way of wind tomorrow. on monday, notice the wind starting to come in, anywhere in this purple, wind gusts upwards of 60 miles an hour or greater, just before everybody gets into that monday night and early on tuesday. the winds are just one factor here, we'll talk about many more factors. watches, warnings, advisories. talk about them all coming up. >> mandatory evacuations are underway for parts of coastal

delaware. that didn't stop some people from having a little bit of fun before sandy threatens to spoil the party. wendy rieger is live with the unusual way people are getting ready here. >> this is a party town, as you know, and this is a party weekend. they have a deadline, they have to be out of here by 8:00 tomorrow night. coast coastal towns don't scare easily, especially when celebrating halloween. >> a lot of people put up lights we put up cardboard. >> reporter: kids trick or treating, no storm's going to stop. >> heck yeah, why not? it's not going to affect you now. >> reporter: but it's coming, tomorrow's plans have been cancelled. now there's a mandatory evacuati evacuation, be out by can 00 tomorrow night. some folks who have a house here weren't planning to leave so

soon. >> if they're mandatory evacuating we'll go. >> reporter: most enjoying this blustery night know the clock is ticking and the inevitable is drawing year. there's a full moon hidden in the gathering gloomt, and more than the wind is going to howl. >> that wind's going to pick you up and carry you away. >> blow us away. fabulous. >> the wind is fabulous right now. it's picking up and getting colder here, this mandatory evacuation started at 8:00 tonight. you have 24 hours if you're within 3/4 of a mile of the beach. the governor said they strongly encourage this because when this thing hits, you don't want to be here. reporting live from rehoboth beach. wendy rieger, back to you. >> thanks, wendy.

throughout our area, people spent the day preparing for the worst from sandy. not only stacking up for the possibility of long power outages, in some neighborhoods they're also bracing for flooding. jackie benson continues our team coverage tonight live in northwest 12k3w4r d.c., maryland, virginia, everyone is preparing for this storm. in the huntington section of fairfax county, it's a tense game of watching and waiting. this flyer was hand delivered to every home in the area, which has been devastated regularly by flooding, warning residents to be prepared. as recently as august, residents of this neighborhood across from the huntington metro station were pumping water out of their basements. they're not looking forward to sandy. >> we've been preparing for a couple days. we used to live in florida. >> at twins ace hardware store on main street in fairfax, can you tell what people need by looking at the empty spaces on

the shelves. >> it's been pandemonium all day today. everyone's getting everything they can to prepare. >> this space on the second floor held portable generators. almost unheard of for inside the beltway used a decade ago. they're now a hot commodity. many found themselves in the dark for days after this summer's storm, people say they're not taking any chances. >> i bought batteries because i'm in panic over the storm like everyone else. and then the guy fixed this, because i bought a battery and it didn't work. now i have the light bulb for that. >> officials hope to avoid a repeat of the massive 911 failure during the summer storm. >> i'm very hopeful that we won't have another incident like we did with the durato storm. >> we're hearing lots of reports tonight from people seeing bare store shelves in grocery stores

around the area. reporting live in northwest washington, jackie benson, news 4. new since 6:00 tonight. amtrak is cancelling some of its service for tomorrow and monday. some of those affected routes include d.c. amtrak says more cancellations are possible, and it's contacting affected passengers, offering them refunds or vouchers. you can see exactly which routes are affected online. we have a link at nbcwashington.com. metro is urging riders to sign up for metro updates on sandy. airports are urging passengers to check with your airline about flights tomorrow through wednesday. the metro washington airport authority says on its twitter page, there are no plans to close the airport. they're anticipating cancelled flights. airlines are letting many

passengers make changes without paying a feenchs tomorrow's marine corps marathon will go on as scheduled, despite the weather. the race gets underway just before 8:00 tomorrow morning. the 26.2 mile course takes runners throughout d.c. and parts of northern virginia. metro will be open at 5:00 a.m., to get everyone where they need to be. dozens of major roadways downtown and in northern virginia will be closed. for a complete list go to nbcwashington.com search marathon road kwloesh our. a reminder that we also have complete coverage of hurricane sandy on nbcwashington.com. we're live streaming all of our on air coverage. so if you lose power, we've still got you covered on nbcwashington.com. >> a developing story tonight. police say a cadillac was fleeing police on new hampshire avenue when it hit a metro bus,

eight people on board were injured. the crash caused the cadillac to hit another metro bus traveling in the opposite direction. two people on board that bus were taken to the hospital along with the cadillac driver. none of the injuries appeared to be life threatening. our coverage of sandy continues this saturday evening. we'll show you how the storm caused problems at local polling places today. atlantic city decided not to gamble on sandy. on itunes or the android

market.

long lines and long wait times for the crowds of people who showed up to vote early today in d.c. eight polling places opened today for early voters. nearly all of them were packed with people hoping to avoid the bad weather, this week ahead. many voters say that the polling places weren't prepared for the large crowds. >> they're still trying to -- people leaving, because they're getting discouraged. >> everybody needs to come and vote early. when they say that, they need to have at least 8 to 10 machines there. >> part of the problem is that some precincts require machines programmed for their specific ballot issues. officials say by monday they will be able to allocate more machines to the busiest polling places. long lines for early voters in maryland today too. hundreds waited patiently in prince georges county. similar situation in oxon hill,

lines wrapped around the public library there. they waited as long as four hours to cast their ballot. president obama and mitt romney are cancelling campaign events in states affected by sandy. governor romney was scheduled to make three stops in virginia tomorrow. he will go to ohio instead. now, the president's cancelling a monday evebt in northern virginia and leaving for florida tomorrow instead of monday. the vice president and first lady, cancelled events because of the weather. still ahead tonight, the impending arrival of hurricane sandy. a live look

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sandy up next. folks all along the east coast are keeping a close eye on sandy, including those on the garden state. chris christie has declared a state of emergency there. he's ordered all casinos in atlantic city, to shut down by tomorrow afternoon. meanwhile, in new york, they're taking a wait and see approach. officials will decide sometime tomorrow about whether to shut down the subways, bridges and tunnels. >> doug, what do you have to say? what are we facing? >> we're facing a big thing. up toward new england, they're talking about new jersey and new york city. new york city could be facing problems. i don't think we're going to see the worst of the storm surge. they could see record level storm surge. that could mean water in the subways. we're going to see the wind here, we're going to see very heavy rain.

once again, for us. it's the power outages that we should be most concerned about. let's show you what we're doing outside right now. beautiful shot as we look toward the kennedy center this evening. it's been a great day. we saw sunshine. and we saw something that a lot of people were tweeting me about, and facebooking today. what is the halo around the sun, and the halo earlier this evening around the moon? that's exactly what we've been seeing is this halo around the sun and the moon, that is from the high clouds. let's take a look at the high cloud from hurricane sandy now. that's from the high clouds from sandy as they made their way up. the high clouds refract and give you a little bit of a halo or a rainbow sometimes around the sun. that's what you're looking at today. and it's probably what you saw this evening too. full moon tonight. here's sandy off the coast of georgia, making its way north and east. look at all of the rain associated with this, back toward portions of north carolina, they've already seen trees down into portions of

eastern north carolina, as of 11:00, the latest advisory, winds are still at 75 miles an hour, the pressure is down to 965 mill low bars. the movement to the northeast at 14 miles an hour. the track taking it out and right back into our area, here we are tuesday around 3:00, expecting the center to be close to our region. it doesn't matter if it's north of us or up toward new york, the wind field from this will be so expansive, we can expect to see tropical storm force winds from new york and boston all the way back down toward raliegh, north carolina and back toward ohio. it may not be called a hurricane when it lands here, it may not be a nor'easter, no what thor what it is, we're still going to call it sandy at snooze 4, it's going to bring us those big time winds. rain, down toward portions of the eastern shore, also southern maryland, that's mostly where it will stay.

you're seeing rain along portions of the delmarva too. the heaviest rain is on the coast of north carolina, that's where it's going to stay overnight tonight. for us, i think we're looking okay for a lot of the activities going on. a low impact event for us during the day tomorrow. light chance of rain, a little bit in the way of wind. but not a lot of the beaches, over toward delaware, we will start to see tropical storm force winds tomorrow. on monday, everybody sees those tropical storm force winds. on tuesday, that's when the storm moves inland. they will be the worst from 12:00 p.m. on monday to 12:00 p.m. on tuesday. that's a full 24 hours of tropical storm winds for just about everybody. the biggest threat here, not just the strong winds, we will see coastal flooding. the heavy rain which could get us flooding. the power outages. prepare for power to be out for a couple days, personally.

something new. high wind watch has been extended. down toward the south and west. that includes everybody in our area a little bit earlier. it wasn't in our southwest counties, now it is for everybody with gusts up to 60 miles per hour, for an extended period of time. we could see gusts to 60 for almost 24 hours. then there's the rain factor. 5 to 10 inches of rain for everybody. that's on the high side i think, even that, five inches could produce some localized flooding in some of the streams, and also the major rivers. we could be talking about river flooding well into next week. this is going to be a scenario that's playing out with us for quite some time. let's break it down for you throughout the night tonight. shower activity toward the delmarva, that's where we expect it tomorrow. take a look, no chances of rain, at least early. except for a few sprinkles. expect the clouds, here comes the rain during the afternoon. most of it will be on the light

side sunday. the rain really picks up overnight sunday into monday morning. that's what we expect to see. tomorrow, cloudy, mild, possible showers, nothing heavy. that's the good news here, temperatures will be cooler than they have been as we get that northeasterly wind. cloudy and cooler, showers likely, becoming breezy, highs in the upper 50s to 60 degrees. 53 for a high on monday. 47 on tuesday. this is important, rather windy with that cold air. wednesday is halloween, of course, temperatures of 54. i have to throw in the s word, possible snow? it's possible. nothing accumulating, but i wouldn't be surprised to see some anncr: it's said that character is what we do... when we think no one is looking.

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people prepare. coming up in sports tonight, maryland's new quarterback spreads his wings against the boston college eagles. carol begins tonight with the terps. >> that's right, we have the win lose and draw version of the sportscast. week nine of the college football season, the clock is ticking on teams trying to become bowl eligible. the maryland terra pins, one of those teams, just two more wins are needed. for the second straight week, they let one slip away late. the fourth string quarterback is the only one left. caleb rowe the true freshman, he led a comeback charge in the second half. his first td pass of his career, terps are rallying after being

down 13-0. it's 13-10 in the fourth quarter. rowe finding his play maker, stephan digs, he was being double and triple teamed all day. he gets the ball in his hands and makes them pay. a 66-yard td and maryland scores 27 unanswered points. for the second week in a row, the defense cannot hold the lead. chase redick hooks up with jonathan coleman. b.c. back on top, 20-17. rowe did it last week with 32 seconds last week, he has 42 seconds to get it down field. his first pass picked off by spencer. a disappointing end to a great game. 20-17 eagles the final. navy fans looking relaxed. they should, they're in keep. take a minute, but the refs

finally rule it a touchdown. reynolds can do it with his arm too. third quarter finds casey, a 15-yard td pass here, navy with a season high 563 total yards, 512 on the ground. midshipmen run wild. 56-28. one other local score, howard falls to south carolina state virginia tech, virginia and west virginia all with a bye this week. d.c. downd: hoping

conference semis of the next weekend. one score in the world series, you've heard about that, game three, the giants up 2-0 in the 9th sandyr looking to put the tigers in an 0-3 hole. we're going to be joined tomorrow by chuck bell who's running in the marathon, and update sandy with you. >> another update real fast. we just had

this november, we the people of ohio will go to the polls and move this country forward. now it is my distinct honor to introduce the president of the united states. i wouldn't want his job, right? ladies and gentlemen, president barack obama. [ cheers and applause ]